The present invention relates to a method for assisting in driving a vehicle, particularly a motor vehicle. The motor vehicle has a surroundings detector for detecting at least a partial area of the surroundings of the vehicle, an output device for the output of information concerning the vehicle surroundings obtained from the surroundings detection to a vehicle driver, and an evaluation unit for determining a risk level based on the vehicle-surroundings information. The present invention also relates to a device for a vehicle, particularly a motor vehicle, for implementing an aforesaid method, having a surroundings detector for detecting at least a partial area of the surroundings of the vehicle, an output device for the output of information concerning the vehicle surroundings obtained from the surroundings detection to a driver, and an evaluation unit for determining a risk level based on the vehicle-surroundings information.
A method indicated at the outset and a device indicated at the outset are described in German Patent No. DE 102 47 563 A1. In particular, this patent describes a method and system for assisting a driver of a vehicle, having a camera for recording at least a portion of the surroundings of the vehicle, and a display device for displaying the surroundings recorded by the camera. In that case, with the aid of a data-processing system, risk objects picked up by the camera which represent a possible danger to the vehicle are to be displayed more conspicuously on the display device than objects which pose no danger.
Moreover, German Patent No. DE 198 39 198 A1 describes a method for the display of driver information in a motor vehicle, in which an optical information signal is intended to be faded into a windshield and/or a rearview mirror of the motor vehicle when a predetermined vehicle condition and/or traffic condition has been detected by a detector for recording vehicle conditions and/or traffic conditions. The optical information signal contains a directional instruction concerning the direction in which a driver should direct his attention.